A Monster Within Me
by Joshua Falken
Summary: Something lived inside of Shinobu all her life, something that terrified Shinobu herself... now it found a way out... (revised)
1. Prologue The Invader

_A Monster Within Me__   
__by Joshua Falken_

* * *

_Inspired by "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "The Incredible Hulk" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby_

* * *

_Thanks to David for beta-read this fic :-)_

* * *

_**Disclaimer**__: Love Hina and its characters are property of Ken Akamatsu. No copyright infligement is intended. This is a fanfiction work, written for fun_.

* * *

_Prologue - The Invader_

While the sirens of the police cars echoed through the entire city of Hinata and armed policemen ran through its deserted streets, a shadow slowly left from an alley. Its breathing was heavy. An intense rage shone in its eyes. It ran quietly at high-speed through Sugihara street until it stopped in front of the shop window of a clothing store.

It closed its fist and with a punch knocked the door off of its hinges. The alarm could only ring once before it was pulled off the ceiling by the invader's bare hands. The only sound throughout the store was the robber's heavy breathing while it took things from the mannequins.

It had just placed a black fedora on its head when suddenly it heard sounds coming in its direction. Quickly, it hid in the shadows. Two policemen, backlit by the their car's headlights, cautiously entered the dark store. Their lanterns and weapons shook in their hands.

_"Attention! Come out with your hands up!"_ The higher ranking officer ordered, but the fear made his voice tremble. They _had heard_ the communicate about what was wreaking havoc throughout the entire city...

The answer that they received was a table thrown at them, they had no chance to defend themselves. The momentum was enough to send them against careening against their car, breaking the headlights. The lantern of one of them rolled along the ground and illuminated their attacker. It was a very muscular woman, at least two and a half meters tall, with jade-green skin and long metallic blue hair. The expression of fury on her face froze the blood in their veins. A long black coat covered the tattered clothes that she was wearing. The vision lasted for just a moment before she leapt over their heads and took off down the street.

Before losing consciousness, one of the officers murmured.

_"What in the world was that?"_

Meanwhile, the attacker leaped from roof to roof of the buildings... as a shadow... or a demon...

======

Later, the mystery monster woman left the forest around the city and arrived at the stairways of Hinata Inn Girls Dorm. She seemed to be trying to control herself, before she began to go up the steps.

_"Home..."_ she murmured.

When she arrived at the top, she came across the locked door. With a movement of hand, she broke the padlock and entered. Her steps in the wooden floor made noises.

"Stop there!" The monster woman turned in the direction of the voice and she saw Kanako Urashima, ready to fight. The Assistant Manager jumped at the invader, determined to knock her down with a straight kick to the face. But before she had that chance, the woman grabbed Kanako by the leg, and with a threw her with all the force she could muster against a wall, that gave way from the impact.

The woman ran through the corridor, where she was received by a hive of Mecha-Tamas discharging missiles and nets, that had on her the same effect that flies would have on a steel wall. And she destroyed them as if they were real flies. She moved forward until she stopped in front of the door of one of the bedrooms. With just a soft blow, the door fell off of its hinges and she entered. She stopped and looked around with a strange expression on her face. It was as if she remembered the place.

_"Shinobu, no!"_

She turned and saw a young brown-haired man, about twenty years old, wearing glasses. One of his legs was plastered.

The shine of recognition appeared in her fury-filled eyes.

_"Keitaro...?"_ The jade-green-skinned woman murmured, before she fell to the ground. She seemed to shrink under the black coat that barely covered her muscular body. The color of her skin changed from green to a pale tone. Her long blue hair shortened and darkened to black. Her wild voice changed while she screamed in pain.

Finally, she fainted on the floor of the bedroom.

Motoko Aoyama appeared behind Keitaro and said, looking at the young girl on the floor.

"You were right, Urashima." She returned her katana to its holder. "She came back."

"Where else could she go?" He murmured, while he approached the body of the invader. He knelt down beside her and turned her body. Meanwhile, in the door of the room, appeared the scared faces of Kaolla Su (who was in a wheelchair), Kanako Urashima (who was still recovering from that mighty blow), Sarah MacDougal, Mitsune Konno and Naru Narusegawa. The swordswoman also knelt down and placed the fainted girl's head kindly in her lap.

"What they do to you?" she asked in a gentle murmur, while she removed a fringe of black hair from her eyes.

Keitaro and Mokoto exchanged worried glances before they looked back into the face of the young girl who had invaded Hinata Inn. The tormented face of Shinobu Maehara.

* * *

_To be continued..._

_Author's Note: Okay... I admit that this is a really weird idea, but I just could not get out this scene of my head until I wrote it down... I guess that this is what happens after you read "Love Hina" and "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and see the trailer for "Hulk" in the same week..._


	2. An Unexpected Call

_A Monster Within Me __  
__by Joshua Falken_

* * *

_Inspired by "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "The Incredible Hulk" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby_

* * *

_Thanks to David for beta-read this fic :-)_

* * *

_**Disclaimer:**__ Love Hina and its characters are property of Ken Akamatsu. No copyright infligement is intended. This is a fanfiction work, written for fun._

* * *

_Chapter 1 - The Unexpected Call_

One month before

"... And the book "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" was written in 1818 by a 15 year-old young girl. Could anybody tell me her name?" The teacher looked around the classroom, waiting until a student lifted their hand. Meanwhile another 15 year-old girl didn't pay attention to the class, busy with daydreaming while she drew in her notebook the picture of a young man wearing glasses.

"Sempai..." she murmured, still daydreaming.

In a corner of the class room, Mikuki Kim, one of the most popular girls in the entire school, looked at Shinobu as a cat looks at its prey. Stealthly, she caught an elastic among her fingers and she shot it against the back of Shinobu's neck.

_"OUCH!"_ the shy girl screamed in pain, massaging the aching place with the right hand.

The teacher, thinking that Shinobu had offered to answer, said:

"Very well, Miss Maehara, who is the author of "Frankenstein"?"

"Well... ahn... well..." The poor girl was lost: she don't even knew what he was asking! "The author of "Frankenstein"? Well... Anne Rice?"

That answer was received with the laughs of the students, that contrasted with the serious face of the teacher. "I'm sorry, but the answer is incorrect. It was Mary Shelley. I think that you need to pay more attention in class!"

"Yes, teacher." She murmured, looking down, totally embarrassed.

An irritating laughter came from behind her. Mikuki and her friends laughed, while they looked with scorn to the shy girl. For just one moment, fury appeared inside of Shinobu and a part of her mind over which she did not have any control, thought:

_"I would love to erase that superior smile off that idiot's face! I would love give a Naru-like punch to shut her mouth! I would love to..."_

Shinobu immediately repressed those thoughts. She _didn't want_ to be angry, she _didn't want_ to be like her parents..

Later, she was leaving the school, when suddenly she fell over a puddle of mud. After she stood up, she saw that her uniform was all dirty.

"But how...?"

She heard the irritating laughter of Mikuki and understood what had happened. She closed her eyes, caught her things and ran with all speed to the Hinata Inn. She cried all the way there.

======

Later, the manager of the Hinata Inn, Keitaro Urashima, was repairing the chandelier of the main lobby while Motoko Aoyama held the stairway.

"I just need to isolate this wire, and it will be repaired." He informed. "Pass the insulating tape, please."

"It is here."

"Thank you for helping me, Motoko."

She just shrugged.

"You are welcome."

At that precise moment, the main door opened with a creake and they saw Shinobu, with her uniform all dirty and eyes that were red from crying so much.

"What happened, Shinobu?" Keitaro asked, concerned.

"Sempai..." she thought, blushing, when she noticed her own state. She ran from the room, crashing by accident into the stairway with a great deal of force.

"Shinobu!" Mokoto exclaimed to the girl, forgetting about the stairway. Keitaro began to fall. When she saw that Naru Narusegawa was entering in the lobby in that moment, Mokoto just closed her eyes. She knew what would happen. In the fall of the stairway, Keitaro tried uselessly to hold onto something and by pure accident he grabbed and ripped Naru's blouse.

"Narusegawa... Excuse me!" he still tried to explain.

"You perverted beast!" Naru screamed at the same time that her fist connected with Keitaro's face. He flew against the roof of the lobby, fell, struck the sofa, turning over the piece of furniture in the process.

"M-Motoko... could you see what happened with Shinobu?" he asked, while he got up.

"Sure, Urashima." The swordswoman agreed, cautiously. In the corner of her eye, she saw the angry face of Naru. She didn't want to be the next victim of her atomic punches... Motoko found the young student in the bathroom of the inn.

"Shinobu? Can I enter?" The new ronin of the inn asked, after placing her head through the door.

"Huh... Yes, Motoko."

The swordswoman approached Shinobu, who had just removed her mud-spotted blouse. Motoko leaned in the sink of the bathroom and tried to assume a deliberately casual attitude. She had already learned that in this way people opened up more easily and she kept cultivating such behavior, ever since she had defeated her older sister for the second time - it helped her to relax and to really work on her problems instead of entering in a crisis every time that something unexpected happened.

"What happened?"

"Nothing." she answered, looking down.

"Shinobu..."

"Well...some girls at school are bothering me!" She confessed. "I don't know what is wrong with me that they..." Tears began to flow.

"Shinobu, there is _nothing_ wrong with you! If they act like idiots, it's _their_ problem!" Motoko lifted her friend's chin. "Did you understand?"

"Yes..." she murmured.

"And who are candidates for the Nobel Prize of Stupidity?"

Shinobu, in spite of herself, laughed. "Motoko, you are spending too much time with Kitsune... you are starting to speak like her!"

The older student smiled. "Thank you for the warning." The observation that she did of Kitsune for one of her histories had its advantages - with that Shinobu smiled. Then Motoko became serious. "Who are the idiots that upset you?"

Shinobu sighed.

"Mikuki Kim and her friends, mainly Megani and Marin. They are the most popular girls in the whole school. They picked on me since I first came there, but _I don't know why! __I hate them! __**Hate them!!!**_" Then, Shinobu noticed her own explosion. "Excuse me, Motoko!"

"Don't worry, Shinobu. It's ok." Motoko affirmed absently. What had surprised her was the shine of rage in the eyes of her shy friend. It was the first time that she had seen anything like this in Shinobu... "Don't worry about such dishonorable girls." Motoko affirmed categorically, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Yes, Motoko. Thank you!"

"You are welcome. Just a question: why did you run from Keitaro and I when you arrived here, at the Inn?"

The high school student blushed.

"Well... I didn't want Sempai too see me in that state and..."

Motoko sighed, understanding the obvious: Shinobu had a crush on Keitaro. With that there were four candidates for the manager's heart: Naru, that was the official girlfriend, the enigmatic Kanako (unfortunately for Keitaro's peace of mind), Motoko herself and now the shy Shinobu... the only people missing from this list were Kitsune and Kaolla who had not as of yet declared their love...

"Keitaro Urashima, serial heartbreaker!", she thought ironically.

======

The inhabitants of the Hinata Inn had just eaten the excellent dinner made by Shinobu when the phone rang.

"Hello, Hinata Inn Girls Dorm. This is the manager speaking... I understand, sir. One moment, please... Shinobu, it is for you. It is your uncle."

Surprised, she took the phone. "Hello, uncle Sanosuke? Any problem with aunt Akane?" She listened for one moment before exclaiming, totally stunned, "Do they want me to visit them?!" More a pause. "When?" She asked weakly. "I-I understand... I will go..." She ended the call.

Kitsune and Naru observed the scene.

"What's up, Shinobu?" The party girl asked.

The girl breathed quickly, trying to control herself. She was pale as a paper leaf.

_"My parents want me to go see them in Osaka."_

======

Later, during the night, one of the inhabitants of the inn rose and went to the center of its room, knelt down and removed a board from the floor of the room. From within that secret compartment, the person pulled out a small notebook. After turning the machine on, the person opened an e-mail program.

From: Observer   
To: AugRad-Kymera   
Subject: Test subject MS-17

Test subject MS-17 received message and it will leave tomorrow to the required place. Awaiting new orders.

The message was sent and the computer was turned off.

In the shadows, there was a cold smile.

* * *

_To be continued..._


	3. Exposition

_A Monster Within Me __  
__by Joshua Falken_

* * *

_Inspired by "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "The Incredible Hulk" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby_

* * *

_Thanks to David for beta-read this fic :-)_

* * *

_**Disclaimer:**__ Love Hina and its characters are property of Ken Akamatsu. No copyright infligement is intended. This is a fanfiction work, written for fun._

* * *

_**Author's note**__: the song that Shinobu sings is "Somebody Else" by Bleu (from "Spider-Man Soundtrack"). No copyright inflingment is intended_.

* * *

_Chapter 2 - Exposition_

The next day, a formally-dressed black-haired girl looked through the window of Shinkensen, heading for Osaka. She sang to herself in a low tone:

_Maybe I was too much   
Maybe I'll take it down a notch   
Maybe I'll have the guts to go mad   
Maybe I'll mess me up real bad   
Maybe I'll make you wish you had the old me back_

_Why can't I be somebody else?  
Somebody who isn't too cool to believe it's okay to be just me..._

She tried to understand what was happening. Since she was 10 years old and was left with her uncles in Tokyo, her parents had never entered into contact with her... _Never_. And now, out of the blue, they demanded that she went to Osaka to talk with them...

"Will it be that they reconciled?" She thought, not knowing if she felt hope or fear of that possibility.

"Attention, Osaka Terminal Station!" A voice announced and Shinobu got ready to disembark. She walked through the terminal until she saw two very big men, in business suits and dark glasses standing in the terminal. One of them had black hair and the other had blond hair and seemed foreign. The blond man held a poster saying: "Shinobu Maehara, Hinata City." Timidly, she approached of them, that they looked at her from head to toe, without sketching any reaction. The one that held the poster asked:

"Miss Maehara?"

"Yes."

"Could you show some I.D.?"

Somewhat surprised, she showed her school card.

"Thank you, Miss Maehara. I'm John Gresham and this is Makoto Matsudaira. We are from the security department of Kymera-Biotech." It was the company for which Shinobu's parents worked. "Unhappily, Doctor Gendo and Kanoe Maehara could not come to meet you, so they asked us to come here and pick you up."

"I un-understand." She was surprised at her own disappointment.

They went in the direction of a white limousine, that had stopped in front of the station. The black-haired bodyguard opened the door of the vehicle and he waited as a very embarrassed Shinobu entered. The bodyguard closed the door and murmured in a hidden microphone:

"MS-17 on the way."

The limousine with the silver logotype of the biotechnology corporation left the train station.

======

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, a woman with a pleasant face served a couple of seniors in her restaurant.

"The food was simply delicious!" The man commented, smiling.

"I'm glad that our food pleased you." Akane Maehara, the boss of the waiters of the Rising Star Restaurant, smiled. After accompanying the last customers of the lunch hour, she went into the office on the superior floor, where her husband, Sanosuke, had a loaded expression while he closed the month's balance of payments.

"Any problem?" she asked.

He lifted the eyes. "No, no problem."

Akane waited in silence. He continued.

"It's just that I don't know if I did the right thing in transmitting Gendo's request to Shinobu."

His wife's face became cold, as it always happened to be when her brother-in-law was mentioned, and she sighed.

"Well, all that we can do now is to pray that they don't make do anything stupid." Akane thought that Gendo and Kanoe deserved eachother: both had a terrible genius, as if they believed that they would never be happy and wanted to share with others around them the same fate. Her husband was very well aware of that: he had been a victim of his brother's omnipresent rage. She didn't understand how a sweet and gentle young girl like Shinobu managed to survive their anger.

"I think you are right, dear." he sighed, resigned.

======

Two days later, Motoko studied for the Entrance Exam for the University of Tokyo when the silence of the Hinata Inn was interrupted by the phone. As she was the only inhabitant inside of the building at that moment, she went down the stairway and answered:

"Hello, Hinata Inn Girls Dorm."

_"M-Motoko??"_ The voice trembled, sobbing with cold and fear. It was so distorted that the ronin didn't recognize.

"Who are you?" She asked confused.

_"It's... me, S-Shinobu..."_

_"Shinobu?!"_ Motoko exclaimed in shock. _"What happened? Where are you?"_

The scared girl ignored the question.

_"Motoko, please... come take me back! Please!"_ Shinobu implored among sobs.

"Sure, Shinobu, I will go right now! But you need to tell me where you are!"

_"I'm in..."_ The connection was interrupted.

"Shinobu? _Shinobu?!?_"

======

In Osaka, a girl looked despaired at the silent phone. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her eyes were red. She began to walk through the corridors of the commercial center.

_"What happened?"_ she asked herself, with terror. She tried to reconstitute what had happened with her since she had arrived in Osaka. After those two bodyguards dropped her in her parents' house, she had dinner with them. They smiled at her, promising that everything would be different, when she felt sleepy. Then everything diffused...

It seemed that she was tied in a chair, inside of a metal chamber, when two blinding lights, a green one and a blue one, illuminated the place. Her skin burned with that frightening light...

It seemed that she was floating in a transparent liquid, with several wires and tubes attached to her body...

Then she woke up in an alley, in that state.

"My God, what happened to me???"

======

Three hours after Shinobu's phone call, Keitaro, Naru, Motoko, Kitsune, Mutsumi and Kaolla disembarked in Osaka.

"Didn't she say where she was?" Kitsune asked Motoko.

"No. The connection ended before she had the chance to tell me!"

Naru assumed the command:

"All right, we will do this: Keitaro and I will verify the hotels, Motoko and Kitsune will verify the hospitals, Mutsumi will try to get in contact with Shinobu's parents and Kaolla will try find her with her machines. Let's go!"

And the search for Shinobu began.

Late of night, Keitaro and Naru, after checking each hotel and inn of the city, took a shortcut through a commercial center that was open twenty-four hours a day. There they met with Motoko: she also had no news.

"I don't understand! Where is she?" Motoko exclaimed. In that instant, the stomaches of the three growled. And all three blushed.

"I... I will get something for us to eat."

"Ok, meanwhile I'm going to go to the bathroom." Naru informed.

"I shall accompany you, Urashima."

After they purchased some sandwiches and glasses of hot tea, Motoko and Keitaro sat down at a table. Then, a small form approached of them, with their head lowered, and asked weakly:

"Please, sir, but could I eat one of your sandwiches? I'm hungry."

When Keitaro lifted his eyes to answer, he had the shock of his life.

_"S-Shinobu?!?!!"_ he exclaimed, not believing his friend's state.

_"Shinobu?!?"_ Motoko repeated, not less shocked.

Only then, the girl seemed to recognize them. Her lips shook. "Keitaro? Motoko?" She said, as if she didn't believe it. Then she hugged them with all her force, as a man drowning holds onto a buoy.

They asked, broken-hearted, what had happened. But Shinobu didn't answer, she just hugged them with more force while her fragile body shook...

======

"I don't like any of this!" Motoko exclaimed for whoever wanted to hear. It was one week since they had brought Shinobu back. During that whole time, she had been locked in her bedroom, crying silently. She didn't answer any questions about Osaka...

"I don't like it either, Motoko, but what can we do?" Keitaro asked.

"Help Shinomu!" Kaolla practically screamed in stereo.

"How?" Now it was Kitsune, concerned.

"We don't know, Fox-girl!" Sarah MacDougal yelled.

Naru was the voice of reason.

"Shinobu decided to return today to the school, then what we can do is support her and let her know that we are here to help her."

Nobody seemed to like that, but they didn't have alternatives.

"Please God, help Shinobu..." Keitaro asked in silence.

======

Later that same day, Mikuki Kim entered into the Sprawl Snack Bar and went into the feminine bathroom and entered into one of the stalls. She waited for some minutes, before she heard the door of the bathroom open up. She heard the steps that approached from where she was and saw underneath of the door the pair of short-piped black boots. The owner of the boots entered in the stalls at the side. The newcomer whistled a part of a popular music and Mikuki answered.

Done with the recognition, Mikuki said:

"You are late!"

The other person didn't answer. She just passed underneath the stalls an envelope. Mikuki opened immediately. It was full of money. She smiled.

"What do you want me to do?"

The woman at the side explained what she wanted.

Mikuki smiled:

"Very well, boss!"

The corrupt student left. Upset the annoying Shinobu Maehara and be payed for it?? Life could not be better!

======

"Please, leave me alone!" Shinobu implored.

"Leave me alone..." Marin made fun of the cry. Megani, Mikuki and her were pushing Shinobu to and fro in the deserted school gym. The three high school students had prepared that trap with great care: first they had sent an anonymous note, asking that the fool Shinobu go the gym after class... And now, Mikuki, Megani and Marin had fun as never before!

Marin held Shinobu's arms while Mikuki held her chin with force.

"Why are you doing this?!"

Mikuki assumed an innocent face. "Amusement, perhaps?" Then she kicked the shy girl's stomach, that bend down, turning target for another kick, this time in the head. The poor girl fell in her back.

The attackers looked at eachother with predator smiles. Mikuki commented:

"You know... I always wondered if she only had the face of a little girl or the whole body... now we can verify."

While the trio approached, Shinobu took her right hand to the lips and felt a hot and sticky liquid. She looked at for the own hand: it was red... _blood..._

_Her blood..._

It was affirmed that red is the color of rage: for Shinobu, it was the trigger. The rage appeared inside of her, violent, uncontrollable. Shinobu began to feel indescribable pains, at the same time that her thoughts became more audacious, more furious, more dangerous. She felt her entire body strengthen, and grow, as if she discovered a powerful source of energy inside of her. It was as if she was becoming... another person in that very moment.

The new Shinobu turned and looked at the trio, that now tried hopelessly to open the door that they had locked in order to trap her. Smiling, Shinobu stood up and noticed, to her surprise that now she was taller, much taller and much stronger. And she was delighted with this new change.

She stepped on the ground with such force that the whole building shook from its foundations. Mikuki, Megani and Marin shook in fear of the monster that was with them... _they were afraid of her..._

Now, she was not the defenseless Shinobu... now she was a new being... _invulnerable, invincible!_

With a wild yell of rage, she leaped in direction of her targets... or better, _her victims_...

* * *

_To be continued..._


End file.
